Recently, in one of the work chats, there was talk about the fact that VTB began to charge a commission for paying for housing and communal services in the Internet bank. One of my colleagues was surprised: it seems that all banks charge a commission. In reality, this is, of course, not the case.
My colleagues and I live in Moscow, for the Moscow State Budgetary Institution Zhilischnik and other suppliers there are generally a lot of ways to pay the bill without %. In other regions there are fewer options, but they can also be found if you type in Yandex something like “payment for housing and communal services without commission Ryazan”.
As a piece of advice, I can recommend checking whether your suppliers are in State Services (registration is required), on the MTS Money website (possible without registration) and YuMoney (formerly Yandex.Money, you can create and authorize a wallet completely online). There are many suppliers whose services can be paid without %. This option is also available in the applications of some banks, for example, Otkritie and Tinkoff Bank.
Yes, you may have to spend some time the first time to find such an option for yourself. But then you will save a small amount every month.
I don’t pay any fees for banking services or individual services at all. Now I’ll tell you where you can save a pretty penny.
What does the law say?
It is necessary to pay attention to the norms prescribed in Art. 1005 Civil Code of Russia. There is an agency agreement, which states: one of the parties agrees to carry out legal and other actions on its own behalf, but the work is carried out at the expense of the principal. The latter pays the established amount of rent in the manner prescribed by the agency agreement.
Art. 155 (Part 15) of the country’s Housing Code says that the management company can pay homeowners and charge them money for the use of real estate and utilities. In this case, the participants in the action are certain payment agents who accept payments from individuals. persons
Art. 155 talks about paying for housing and communal services, as well as for housing (house, apartment, etc.).
How to pay for housing and communal services through State Services using a single personal account
If you want to pay for all utilities at once, use a single personal account. The procedure will be similar:
- Follow the link www.gosuslugi.ru.
- Log in.
- Find the section “Payment of housing and communal services”. It is located in the Apartment, Construction and Land category. If you can’t find it right away, use the search bar.
- On the page for searching for bills to pay for utility services, click on the item “Payment of charges from the GIS Housing and Communal Services”.
- In the empty line, indicate a single personal account or payment ID.
- The system will search for charges for all utilities for the specified drug for the month.
- A list of suppliers and the amount to be paid for each of them will be displayed. Check all data.
- At the bottom of the list will be the total amount. If everything is correct, click “Proceed to payment”.
- Select a Payment Method.
- Enter the required data and confirm the payment.
Usually the payment takes place within a few minutes, but in some cases the payment may take up to 7 days.
The amount of commission that will be charged additionally
There is a fee for conducting banking transactions. Russian citizens need to obtain information themselves about which financial institutions offer a minimum or zero amount. When dealing with only one bank, and carrying out transactions using different methods, the fees charged are not the same.
To avoid additional financial burden, it is advisable to learn everything about the specifics of conducting transactions to pay for housing and communal services. In the future, the client will use the services of a bank where the commission is minimal or will choose the most careful method.
You can pay attention to specific examples of collecting commissions, for example, in Sberbank. If you pay for utilities through:
- terminals from 0.5 to 2%;
- cash desk – 2-3%;
- online – 0.5-1%;
- ATMs from 0.5 to 2%.
You can pay for housing and communal services using Russian Post. There you will have to pay a commission of 3% if you do this at the checkout.
Commissions when calculating using the terminal may vary. It matters where the equipment is installed. Therefore, before paying, it is better to clarify the size of the commission.
Payment of utility services without commission
Being busy and the frantic pace of life are not an obstacle to paying for housing and communal services at lightning speed. The latter is easy to do thanks to the development of electronic technology. You can use very convenient services for these purposes, and the commission will be minimal.
To make payments for housing and communal services, a person needs:
- mobile operator (MTS, Beeline, etc.);
- Internet access;
- bank card.
You can pay for services without commission by visiting a housing and communal services institution. But there are queues waiting for the client, which almost never disappear. This method is unlikely to suit a working person. It takes a lot of time. But it is very popular among pensioners.
In order not to pay additional interest on the amount paid, you can use the bank cash desk. But not all Finns. institutions offer such services. First you need to find out whether they charge a commission or not in a particular place.
You can use the post office and pay without interest, but there are restrictions. People who have entered into contracts with the Russian Post and are clients of the bank have a similar right.
Quite convenient payment methods are terminals and ATMs. But this applies to cardholders.
A good commission-free way to pay via Internet banking. There is no need to be afraid of this method; it is not inferior in reliability to visiting the bank directly.
Payments for housing and communal services can also be made through mobile operators. For this purpose, special programs are used that are installed on laptops. They also work well on Android phones.
Not many banks provide clients with the opportunity to pay for housing and communal services without commission, these are:
- Tinkoff;
- Citibank;
- Credit Europe;
- Uniastrum Bank.
This became known as a result of research conducted in 2016. Promsvyazbank can also be added to this list, but without interest you will be able to make a payment of up to 10 thousand rubles.
Post office
Payment for housing and communal services through Russian Post is popular in small towns, villages, and hamlets. In big cities, the pace of life is fast, so such services lose their attractiveness. After all, you need to visit a post office to make a payment.
In some regions, a commission is still charged for paying for housing and communal services at the post office. Before paying, you need to clarify this point with the operator.
Payment is made near the free window. Often you have to stand in line. The operator needs to give the completed books for services. The money is accepted by a postal employee, who then enters the data, gives the second receipt to the client, and keeps the first one. The operator also returns checks to the client, which contain payment information.
Sberbank Online
To pay bills without any problems and without interest, you will need:
- Internet access;
- bank account;
- be a user of Mobile Banking.
It is necessary to carry out a number of simple steps:
- log in to your personal account (you can find out your password and login using the self-service terminal);
- Login to the site must be confirmed via SMS (a code will be sent to your phone; it is written in a special field that appears after entering your login and password);
- click “Payments and transfers”;
- Among the available categories, click “Housing and communal services and home telephone”;
- you should select a service from the list that appears;
- then select a service provider from the list;
- a form appears that needs to be filled out;
- if all the data is entered correctly, you can move on and click “Continue”;
- Then the code is sent to your mobile phone again, you need to enter it.
If everything is done correctly and the payment is successful, a page will appear where the results of the action performed are displayed. The receipt can be printed if necessary.
To pay without commission, you can use the mobile application from Sberbank Online. This method works great in devices that use:
- iPhone;
- Android;
- iPad;
- Windows Phone.
The application is downloaded from the official Internet resource of Sberbank. You must register in this system after downloading it.
To pay for housing and communal services through the application, you need:
- Log into the application (this is done using a five-digit code. It will be recognized during registration).
- You need to look at the settings and check the region so as not to make a mistake with the service provider.
- Click “Payments and transfers”.
- A whole list will open, from which you should select “Housing and Public Utilities”.
- Select a service provider.
- A form will open, you need to fill it out.
- Click “Pay”.
- Confirm the action.
If you need to check the payment status, this information is contained in the history.
Mobile banking
If you use the Sberbank Online service, you will have to pay 1% of the amount. But the bank also has a mobile banking service. In this case, you will not have to pay a commission.
To connect to the service you need to register in the system. After this, go to the “Housing and Communal Services...” section, select your management company from the list provided, enter the meter details and data from the meters.
Next, after filling in all the required fields, confirm the transfer via SMS code that will be sent to you by the system. You can print a receipt by going to the “Executed” category and selecting the appropriate payment.
Additionally, you can connect . This way, the required amount will be debited from your card automatically. This will save you a lot of time.
State Services Portal
The State Services service does not charge a commission for paying for utilities from its own clients. But interest on the amount paid can be charged by the service provider, as well as by the bank used by the client.
If the payer decides to resort to the State Services website, then he can use a bank account or an electronic wallet.
To start making payments through State Services, you need to:
- go to gosuslugi.ru;
- Log in to your personal account or register;
- Having entered the account, click “Payment”;
- select “Payment for housing and communal services”;
- click “Pay”;
- A window appears, in which you should select “Get a service”.
Thanks to this method, the client will avoid queues, save time, and eliminate confusion in receipts.
Conclusion
When choosing methods for paying utility bills, analyze not only the amount of the transaction fee, but also the convenience of depositing money. It may often turn out that it will be more profitable to pay utility bills with a minimum commission than to waste time and incur additional expenses in order to complete the transaction for free.
For example, paying for utilities with a minimum commission of 30 rubles. from a mobile phone, this can be done at any convenient time, even on the way home from work. It will take a few minutes for the payment to complete.
If you choose the free payment method through a visit to the representative office of the service provider, then transportation costs will additionally amount to 100 rubles, and a minimum of 1-1.5 hours of time will be required.
Terminals and ATMs
Some Finnish institutions provide the opportunity to pay for housing and communal services via an ATM without losing money on commission, but they provide such benefits only to their clients. If a person does not have an account with a financial institution, then he will have to overpay interest.
To pay using an ATM, you need to select the “Utility payments” item, which will definitely be on the display. You must also enter the required data. It is better to get acquainted with the conditions before paying at an ATM, but not all fin. institutions provide the client with the opportunity to become familiar with these requirements.
It’s easy to pay for housing and communal services without commission using terminals. But fewer of them do not withdraw interest. You will need cash for this, no card required. It is necessary to enter the account number and some personal data in a special field. Then comes the payment.
Will the banks listen?
Of course, people will be pleased by the abolition of commissions. But how will banks take this news? “It seems to me that if banks are not allowed to earn money transparently, they will still find ways to receive their income,” says Svetlana Krivoruchko, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation . – Banks invest a lot of money in networks, terminals, ATMs, security, and all this must somehow be repaid. The authorities cannot be nice at the expense of commercial organizations. We must seek a balance between the social protection of people and the interests of banks. Perhaps it is necessary not to cancel, but to limit the fee. Or do it in the form of a small fixed amount. Banks are disingenuous when they take a percentage of the payment amount. Their costs depend on the transaction, not the amount. For example, when making payments to legal entities, no one charges a fee depending on the size of the amount. Why should individuals overpay?”
Receipt of payment
The receipt (or EPD) of payment must be kept. It is not thrown away, but saved in paper form. If money was deposited via the Internet, you need to print a receipt. Receipts will be needed when selling your home.
The storage period for the receipt is 3 years. This is stipulated in the law on the statute of limitations.
In 2021, it is quite possible to pay for housing and communal services without overpaying the commission set by the bank. To do this, they use terminals, payment systems offering their services via the Internet, terminals and other available methods.
When to deposit funds
The payment date for utility services is clearly stated in Article 155 of the RF Housing Code. The first paragraph of this regulatory document states that citizens of the country must make payments by the 10th of each month. During this period of time, the citizen pays for services already provided.
The same document also stipulates the assignment of penalties in case of failure to pay. Thus, penalties are accrued after 31 days after the 10th of the month. It is 1/300 of the refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for each day on the basis of Article 156 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. Additionally, penalties are established in the form of separate amounts. It turns out that people may not pay utility bills for 31 days and no penalties will be charged.
This is convenient if a citizen is on vacation or is away from his place of permanent residence and, accordingly, cannot deposit funds in a timely manner. However, it is recommended to repay the debt on time. Moreover, now it is possible to pay rent without a commission.
